Miso Carrot Soup with Sesame Oil

Thank you Smitten Kitchen, for bring this warm beam of sunshine to our cold, snowy corner!  When I first saw this recipe posted about a week ago I knew I had a use for the miso hiding among the other containers towards the back of my fridge.  Poor miso, you deserve so much more attention from us.

Soup is such a quintessential winter food, and this recipe has the benefit of not begin weighted down by heavy creams or a lot of butter.  The ginger and carrot is truly allowed to shine through.  And the bright orange color is a cheery reminder of the warmer days to come.  Ah, winters in Minnesota...

Adapted from Deb's Smitten Kitchen

The Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil
2 lbs carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 - 6 garlic cloves, minced
1- 2 Tbsp finely chopped or grated ginger
4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup white miso paste, or more to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish
Drizzle of toasted sesame oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced

The Process:
Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion and garlic.  Sauté until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the broth and ginger. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in blender, or all at once with an immersion blender. In a small bowl, whisk together the miso an a half-cup of the soup. Stir the mixture back into the pot of soup. Taste the soup and season with salt, pepper or additional miso to taste.

Ladle into bowls and garnish each with a drizzle of sesame oil and small mound of scallions.

The Review:
This is a soup I could eat for days.  I followed a suggestion on Smitten Kitchen that the ginger could easily be doubled.  I did so.  The result was bright and biting.  The fresh ginger danced across the palate playing with the sweetness of the carrot.  Havign doubled the ginger, I should have increased the miso as well...the deep earthly flavor was barley present, but grounded the soup well.

I loved how incredibly light the flavors were.  No heavy creams or a lot of butter to weigh the dish down.  I suppose it would have froze well.  But honestly I couldn't tell you. We had polished it off by the second day.

And the sesame oil and scallion garnish?  It will make your soul sing.

Miso Glazed Eggplant

I love eggplant but often find myself in a rut over how to prepare it. The Mediterranean standbys grow old and a bit to familiar. But while flipping through one of Ross' Men's Health magazine, an article jumped out about dressing up your veggies. Asian condiments and a hot broiler seemed a good fix for the eggplant rut.

adapted from "A Meat Lover's Guide to Vegetables" in Men's Health, October 2011

The Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant, cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices
2 Tbsp shiro (white) miso
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce

The Process:
Preheat the broiler.

Lightly brush both sides of the eggplant slices with vegetable or olive oil Line a baking sheet with foil and arrange the slices in a single layer.

Combine the miso, honey, vinegar, and soy sauce along with a dash of pepper. Whisk until well blended. Brush the sauce on the exposed sides of the slices.

Broil the eggplant 6 inches from the heat until the sauce is caramelized, about 3-4 minutes. Flip the slices, brush with exposed sides with sauce and broil 3-4 minutes more.

Remove the eggplant to a serving platter and brush with remaining sauce before serving.

The Review:
I adored the miso glazed salmon I tried a few months back. The fish had a lovely balance of sweet, salty and umami. The eggplant, though, lacked something. The funk of the miso seemed to overpower the honey and soy sauce instead of blending with it. The sauce didn't seem to caramelize as promised, so much as brown and burn. And while I have enjoyed many silky or meaty textures of eggplant, depending upon how prepared, this incarnation seemed almost slimy.

Next time perhaps the smaller Japanese eggplants are in order. And a bit more tweaking with the sauce ratio. There is always room for improvement, and never a failure without the chance for later success.

Miso Glazed Salmon

I adore seafood. However, I am often at a loss for new ways to prepare fish. I'm a fan a simple sauces and minimal ingredients when it comes to fish, as to let the flavor of the fillet shine through. Enter miso. I had seen a few marinades, glazes and sauces using this paste tossed around on a friends' food blog and epicurious. However, hearing NPR's Kitchen Window segment on miso sold me on this preparation. With only three ingredients in the glaze, the hardest part was tracking down the miso!

adapted from NPR's Kitchen Window, April 20, 2011

serves 2

The Ingredients:
2 Tbsp white miso (any variety)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey
1 lb sockeye salmon fillets
sesame seeds (optional)

The Process:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together the miso, soy sauce and honey, adding more honey if it's too salty for your taste. Brush the fillets with the miso glaze. Place the fish on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake for about 8 minutes or until opaque inside, and the flesh flakes easily. When done, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve hot.

My Modifications:
Eve's orginal recipe called for halibut, but what glaze seemed to work equally well on salmon. As the recipe recommended, I used equal amount of honey, soy sauce sauce and miso and found no need to adjust the amounts to taste. The salmon did need to bake closer to 12 minutes to cook through.

The Review:
One pound of salmon yielded three dinner sized fillets, however the dish was so loved that when I went to wrap up the third fillet, I discovered Ross had already devoured it! The dish was simple and elegant. As I mentioned early, the hardest part was finding the miso. Two Asia markets did not carry it, nor did our higher end grocer. We finally discovered a few varieties at our co-op, the Wedge.